Articles by Kalpana Kannabiran

How may ICSSR and its network of institutes enable the growth of social sciences? It is time to move beyond assessments and towards building different possibilities into an archaic system, using texts of different kinds and bringing the diversity and dynamism of the world outside. The need is to frame research questions differently and reimagine higher education in the process.

What is Telangana? Why does it stir such powerful sentiments? What are the boundaries between the people and the leadership? In an attempt to understand the multilayered articulation of the demand for a separate Telangana, we decided to speak to a cross section of people on their participation and their aspirations - people across political formations and social backgrounds. Our travels took us to small farmers, pastoralists, intellectuals, coal miners, schoolteachers, weavers, traders and dhobis; Muslim, adivasi, dalit and student leaders; we attended meetings in adivasi hamlets, in working class urban neighbourhoods and we visited shibirams (tents) across the region and spoke to people on relay hunger strikes. We see quite clearly the emergence of a new politics that is committed to deliberating over the meanings of democracy and direct action. People's demand for Telangana elaborates a complex set of arguments in relation to investment, employment, education, land, water, and resources. But more importantly it has to do with self-rule, dignity and self-respect, which are the fundamental premises of the Telangana movement. The separate state is seen as only the first step towards democratisation.

This essay spotlights judicial twists on the issue of sex discrimination over the last six decades through an examination of reported cases from the high courts and the Supreme Court of India. These cases by themselves do not exhaust the field of non-discrimination, but point to one site where there have been protracted deliberations. This sociological reading looks at the ethnographic detail that texts present, the process and points of deliberation and contestation among petitioners, respondents and courts, and the multiple implications of jurisprudential resolution for genderbased discrimination. It follows the plural threads of reasoning with respect to women's status, position, vulnerabilities and rights, and attempts to understand their ideological underpinnings.



As India prepared to celebrate 60 years of independence, a special court delivered its verdict on the case relating to the massacre of dalits in Andhra Pradesh in August 1991. This article goes back to the carnage and traces how the accused were convicted, thereby instilling a sense of hope and trust among the many victims of violence.